On another site, I sorta… um… spent way too much time in the comment box reporting my search for… what part Callista Gingrich sings in the choir at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Not because it’s a political thing, but because Wikipedia didn’t include this obviously-important piece of info.

Well, today my choir geekiness has apparently been vindicated, because back on the 15th, the Washington Post had a big story about the tensions of singing in a choir for God while doing all this candidate wife stuff, and about the relationship of Mr. Gingrich’s conversion to Mrs. Gingrich’s singing. There’s angst about what happens if you lose one of your experienced altos. There’s choir culture. And then, it’s a big old sacred music ponder-fest, spending lots of time with the choir director.

Whether or not you like the Gingriches (and hey, lots of choirmembers are not super-likeable or super-virtuous people in some aspect of life, though choir often makes us try to be), this is an important story for understanding things like the new liturgical movement. Or, you know, sacred music. There’s a world of difference between concert Mass performance and singing Mass music as part of actual Mass.